The Means by Which All is Revealed
by Eggs in a Beaker
Summary: Nobody, in SHIELD or the Avengers, truly realizes how far Tony will go for the people he cares about or how important they are to him. Nor do they realize that the Loki incident wasn't his first rodeo with the Tesseract, but Tony knows. He also knows that the bonds he has formed over the years are what make up his entire world and he will protect it, no matter what.
1. Chapter 1

The Means by Which All is Revealed

Chapter 1:

Tony Stark, though he is a verifiable genius, could be a real idiot when it came to his health. Most often his transgressions would include not eating or sleeping and the occasional antagonizing of a certain deadly female assassin. For the former, the team, who had all moved into the newly named Avengers Tower post Battle of Manhattan, would take turns dragging Tony out of the lab (the later was a lost cause). Since half the time Tony would end up being dragged kicking and screaming *cough*Natasha&Clint*cough*, Bruce eventually became the go to guy for coaxing Tony out of his sanctuary of science for basic human needs. This was one of those times. Hey, at least he's toilet trained.

"Tony, when was the last time you ate?" Bruce announced as he made as dramatic an entrance as a mild mannered scientist such as himself could, glaring down at his fellow genius, who was currently bent over his suit tinkering with one of the hand repulsors.

"Uhhh…It doesn't matter?" Bruce glared harder, "It couldn't have been more than a couple hours ago"

"Jarvis?"

"Sir has not eaten since this morning"

"See, a couple hours ag–"

"18 hours ago," Jarvis couldn't help but interrupt with as much disapproval as an AI could express.

"Oh…wow" Tony trailed off, suddenly sheepish. "Time flies when you're saving the world one super special awesome suit at a time"

"Tony"

"Oh alright I'll be up in a sec, just let me finish this" Tony indicated a free hand towards a rolling chair, similar to his own, situated along the wall of his lab, "Take a seat, make yourself comfortable"

Rather than accepting Tony's _gracious _offer, ("Why is there foam on the chair?" "Dummy, fire extinguisher, don't ask") Bruce decided to browse through Tony's work. This had become the norm after Bruce had finally accepted that, no, he would not be kicked out of the tower for any stupid reason his paranoid mind could think up. "Hey what's this?" Bruce asked indicating the neat deck of cards next to one of his many empty coffee cups. Colored in various shades of blue with a picture of an abstract styled face on the back and a little too long for regular playing cards…"Tony, are these tarot cards?" Bruce asked in surprise.

"Hey, no jokes. I was just cleaning some old stuff. Seriously forget about 'em they're just some old toys." Tony protested indignantly.

"It's just I wouldn't have pegged you for the magic fortune telling type given your devotion to all things science."

"Disregarding the fact that Thor and the lovely Miss Foster have collaborated on numerous occasions that magic is merely an advanced form of science, I am not into that kind of stuff. I told you they're just old toys." With that, the conversation tapered off, Tony continued his work in silence, and Bruce resumed his pacing until he was leaning against the wall of his own personal workspace, sequestered in a different corner of the spacious lab.

"So…do you read any fortunes?" Bruce inquired with a casually raised eyebrow, trying to hide his amusement.

"Bruce!" Tony glared at the his fellow Science Bro who was currently in hysterics and replied, "No, I don't." Suddenly Tony's previously annoyed expression was replaced with a more mischievous look; the look of a prankster, "But I do know one trick" Tony casually rolled his chair back over to where Bruce stood only moments before to pick up the deck. Then he rolled right in front of Bruce to offer his little piece of fun. "Go, on take it," he demanded before rolling back to his workspace. "Now shuffle them," he ordered without looking up. Once Bruce began to carefully rearrange the well cared for cards, Tony chimed in, "C'mon you can do better than that. I imagine during you're world tour you picked up some wicked blackjack dealing skills."

"That would be you," Bruce retorted with all the seriousness he could muster because, c'mon, it's Tony; it's already hard enough to be serious with him during a life or death situation.

"Oh yeah… Okay, now pick a card" Tony instructed once he noticed Bruce had completed his task.

"Just pick a card?"

"Yeah, it doesn't have to be from the top it can be from anywhere in the deck and I'll tell you what it is.

"Uh, here," Bruce begins uncertainly, holding a card chosen from the middle of the deck. The card had a blue border, similar to the blue on the front, a light blue and white background with a small sun in the top right, the silhouette of a woman taming lion, and number in roman numerals. "Number…eleven"

"The Strength Arcana, cool, now do it again." Tony orders, shifting paying full attention to Bruce.

"How is this –?"

"Just do it"

Bruce slowly placed the card in the middle of the deck and reshuffled, this time choosing from the top. Strength. "That's just a coincidence…" Again, with faster movements, the same outcome. "Wait how is this…?" And again. The 'XI' is still staring back. "That's impossible…" After trying seven more times, with the same results, Bruce finally asks with suspicion, "What are you doing?"

Tony only grinned, "Neat trick, huh?" Tony hefted himself out of his comfortable chair to join Bruce in examining the card. "That's your card, 'Strength,' not physical strength, mind you, but more of an internal strength like self control. Perfect for you, right?"

"Yeah…very dead on," Bruce trailed off, placing the deck on a nearby table. "So, what's your card?"

Seemingly excited about the question, Tony leaned over towards the table to quickly pluck a card off the top of the deck and brandish it for Bruce to see. "The Fool, number zero, full of endless possibilities, spontaneous, creative, a little mad, and a 'jack of all trades'"

"Proud aren't we?"

"Immensely."

Suddenly, Bruce's expression had changed to one of intense concentration. "Let me see those cards again." Bruce turned the deck over and fanned them out to stare at each individually, "No repeats… hmm… how come this one has the same number as Strength?" Bruce inquired, tilting his head to get a better view of the upside down card.

"Oh, that's the Hunger Arcana, it has the same number cause it's the other side of strength; strength through dominance over others. Not true strength, but the illusion of it." Tony explained hurriedly, as if it pained him to talk about it

"Why does it have it's own card?"

"Because it's like …" Tony trailed off frustrated and finished in a slightly raised voice, "an entirely different person!"

Hoping to ease the tension and end the awkward silence caused by Tony's sudden outburst, Bruce tried to change the subject. "…You're pretty knowledgeable for someone who doesn't believe in 'hocus pocus'"

Thankful for the turn in conversation, Tony replied in his usual arrogant manner. "I can't help it, it's in my nature to be vastly knowledgeable in all subjects"

"Careful there, you're ego is showing" Suddenly a loud crash echoed in the tower, followed by the raised voices of Thor cursing out some metal contraption and Clint, Natasha, and Steve trying to placate him. "I'm going to make sure the kids don't destroy the kitchen" Bruce declared with a weary look.

"My kitchen thanks you Dr. Banner; babysitter extraordinaire," Tony replied in mock sympathy

"Yeah, yeah, just be at the dinner table in ten minutes or you're grounded from the lab"

"Hahaha…you're not serious, right? Bruce?" Tony yelled worriedly, as Bruce's laughter echoed in the lab until the automatic doors sealed shut. "That went well," He declared to the empty room

"At least Doctor Banner failed to notice how some of the cards were always upside down no matter how many times they were turned" Jarvis responded in his vaguely sarcastic sounding British accent.

"Thank goodness for small miracles"

Little Tony Stark was and always would be a genius far ahead of his peers. Even at age 6 he was trying to prove just how good he could be to anyone who would listen.

_The only problem was getting someone to listen._

_Sure, Jarvis and Maria would congratulate him on his achievements, no matter how small, but the one he would always try to impress at that age, his father Howard Stark, would only give a passing glance, full of indifference, and maybe arrange a small sneak peek for the press._

_Tony would try and figure out _why _his father wouldn't react to anything he did, eventually resorting to asking Jarvis and his mother, who would just say that he _was _proud, but that just wasn't good enough. The one who finally gave him useful advice was Obie, who suggested that Tony take an interest in his father's work. _

_So Tony decided to investigate Howard's latest project: an unusual energy source referred to as the Tesseract in all the hidden files (cause Tony is just that good at finding secret info). Of course, Tony had no way of finding the real thing since it was apparently some where in the ocean with Captain America, but he could still examine the fragments recovered from Hydra weapons in his father's private lab._

Breaking into the secluded basement lab was a cinch, since Howard was on one of his Captain America expeditions in the arctic that weekend. The inside of the lab was cluttered; papers on every surface, even the floor, and many pieces of potentially dangerous equipment lined the walls, but Tony's goal was behind a glass window inside an observation room. Being only 6, the window was a little too high for him, but he could still see the unnatural blue light the small fragment emitted. If only he could get a little closer…but Tony was in luck since his father had accidentally left the door unlocked, allowing the young genius to enter undeterred and pick up the fragment (with safety gloves, of course, he's not stupid). However, once the coarse surface of the gloves gripped the shard, it began to glow. Brighter, and brighter until it reached blinding proportions and Tony lost consciousness.

_Tony later awoke in his room, the shard nowhere in sight, to find his world tinted green and bright yellow eyes staring back at him._

A/N: So, this is my Avenger/Persona Crossover that has been nagging at me for so long that it spurred my entrance into the world of fanfiction. Fueled by a love for the Avengers and my recent juggling between P3P and P4G on my shiny new PSVita (which I actually got after I preordered and received P4G to get the fancy vita skin bonus) and this is what you get. BTW I already know the basic stories of both games since I played both Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 for the PS2 roughly two years ago, so I've experienced a lot of the series already (still working on the other games in the Shin Megami Tensei series, but my older sis has first dibs on those since I kinda dominated the persona series). A word of warning, I'm not planning on making up some murder mystery for Tony like Persona 4, but I'm going to focus on his social links, his shadow, and some other surprises for later. I've already got the social links mostly assigned except for Steve, who I'm kinda on the fence about, so I will ask the readers! For Steve I was considering either Star (hope, altruism, optimism) or Hermit (kind of isolated since he's the 'man out of time' and focus on his assimilation to modern times). Input is well appreciated, so review! This is my first time writing fanfiction, so I hope there aren't too many mistakes.

P.S. Props to anyone who recognizes the title


	2. The Fool

**A/N: I'm thrilled by how many people like this story and am grateful for the positive reviews. BTW I put a poll on my profile about Steve's arcana because I thought it would be an easier way to get my readers' opinions. Now on with the show! Also one thing about the dark hour was puzzling me in this; if the dark hour is at midnight in Japan doesn't that mean in New York it would be 2 pm? Well, that's how I'm interpreting it and it makes some things a little easier *shrug* I hope everyone likes this chapter too.**

**Disclaimer (I forgot this in Chp 1): I own nothing :(**

Chapter 2:

_Tony later awoke in his room, the shard nowhere in sight, to find his world tinted green and bright yellow eyes staring back at him._

Those bright yellows stared intently from a face very familiar to Tony, his own face, before returning its, _his_, gaze back to the posters decorating the room. The room of a genius is a very strange place, especially Tony's room in Stark manor. You have the mess of wires and materials you would expect in a mechanic's workspace along with some hints that betray the true age of the brilliant mind living there. On every wall there were Captain America posters, some action figures, collectable cards preserved in neat binders, and even a small shield perfect for a child's make-believe fantasies of saving the world. Tony would look up at those posters and imagine the near impossible stories that his father would tell at parties, reminiscing about days past, but the Tony look-alike was staring with that same gaze of wonder. No, his unnatural eyes were only filled with contempt and some other emotion Tony couldn't identify.

Back to the matter at hand, _what happened?_ Tony wondered confused and still slightly disoriented.

"Jarvis found you asleep in the lab and moved you here. You've been asleep since then and slept through lunch, but now…" Suddenly more awake from the sudden interjection of his mysterious would-be clone, Tony quickly took stock of his surroundings.

"The clocks are stuck at 2pm and the place looks like something out of a poorly funded horror movie; blood oozing walls and all. Oh, and crappy lighting." The jokes slipped out of Tony's mouth easily, but once they had he realized what he just said. Sitting up to get a better look, Tony saw that the walls really were oozing a red, thick liquid, but oddly enough they didn't run over the posters. Instead flowing around them in a grotesque maze-like pattern. "Now, who are you?"

"I am the shadow. The true self." The not-Tony said with a bow, standing at the foot of the bed Tony was sprawled on, giving him a probing look. He was Tony's copy in every way. His hair, his face, the way he drummed his fingers against his leg in thought, right down to the clothes Tony was currently wearing: a blue shirt with a Captain America shield and dark jeans.

"Rehearse that in front of the mirror much?" Tony couldn't help but reply in the same self assured tone.

"If that's what it takes to succeed, then yes." The 'shadow' replied with a look of determination, turning away to pace around the fairly large room. "Anything to be acknowledged, right?" He continued conversationally. "So why don't they pay attention!" He yelled, accentuating his outburst by throwing a wrench across the room, hitting the biggest poster of Captain America in the face. "All Daddy dearest does is look for Steve Rogers. 'Oh, Captain, my Captain, where could you be?' Dead in the ocean that's where, and the sooner he realizes it the better. This is all Captain America's fault." Gone was the casual attitude, and now there was only anger.

"No, it's not." Tony protested, grasping onto the excited feeling he would get whenever hearing about the adventures of Captain America and the Howling Commandos.

"Yes it is!" His shadowed argued back vehemently. Waves of dark purple, almost black energy, radiated of his body causing the room to shake. "Just think how much better it would be if they all just forgot about him." The shaking was stronger now, as the floor lamp in the corner of the room fell and shattered into pieces. "If not him… then the only one left to blame is…me, us, for not being good enough." With that, the same energy that seemed like it would bring the house down a moment ago drained out of the shadow making him seem more like the child he was supposed to be emulating.

"I don't hate him for being who he was." Mirroring the look of desolation now on his darker half, Tony continued, letting his thoughts spill out to the thing that seemed to understand him most, even though he might not believe in the whole 'shadow' thing. "I'm _jealous_," Tony said, finally realizing what that extra emotion in his shadows eyes earlier was. "He has what I want and he isn't even around to enjoy it…it's just why…"

"Why are we so alone?" He finished sympathetically. "I'll never forgive him." The shadow resolved with a look of seriousness, out of place on such a young face. "Are you going to throw me away now too?"

"If I do?" Tony questioned, silently challenging.

"I might throw a tantrum." Shadow Tony replied with a dangerous smile that seemed to make his body radiate a darker aura.

"If I don't?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow, expecting a similar, slightly threatening answer.

"Then I guess I'll get out your hair and leave you be." The shadow looked resigned, as if he had expected it to come to this all along.

"What the hell is your problem!?" Tony yelled suddenly in frustration, breaking the silence between them.

"What?" The shadow replied, genuinely confused.

"You just went on about how alone we are and you're planning on just leaving me." Tony ranted in anger. "Too bad! I choose neither. You're stuck with me, you hypocrite." He finished with a pout, slightly embarrassed about admitting his weakness, even to himself.

"This is…highly irregular," The shadow's puzzled expression stayed in place.

"I'm Tony Stark; get used to it cause this is the type of person _I _want to be." That got a genuine smile out of his darker counterpart. The oddly companionable moment was soon interrupted by the appearance of a card glowing in mid-air. It spun on one corner, showing the silhouette on one side of a weird hobo being followed by a dog and the number 0, before falling into the hand Tony had instinctively held out. "What's this? A card?" Holding it in his hand, Tony felt a kind of warmth spreading through his chest that he had never felt before.

"I guess if meeting like this is going to be routine, then you can just call me Anthony to keep things simple." The newly christened Anthony declared with a smirk, ignoring Tony's question.

Giving up on the Q&A as a lost cause, Tony carefully lifted the glowing card out of his left hand to better examine it. However, once the card was removed it became apparent that the glowing wasn't _just _the _card; _it was his _hand_. His left hand was glowing a faint light blue with the brightest part being a thin slit across his palm in a very familiar shape. "Oh look here, so that's where that glowy toothpick went." He said nervously putting the card down on the bed, so he could run his other hand along his palm, subtly feeling for some type of scar.

"I don't think there's a way of getting that out," Anthony said, offering his two-cents. Suddenly, he tilted his head, as if listening to something only he could hear. _Wait a second, is that a clock chiming? _Tony thought."It's time… See you tomorrow?" Anthony asked uncertainly before nodding to himself as if he had answered his own question.

"Hey, wait–" Tony tried to get the attention of his new friend, again that warm feeling spreading through him at that thought, but couldn't finish his question, as Anthony and the rest of the world faded into darkness before brightening again into the customary color scheme of the real world with his room as devoid of human life as it always was.


	3. The Sun

**A/N: I'm sorry about how long it took to write this next part. I got really busy and I'm also really scatterbrained and don't always write in chronological order, so I ended up writing stuff for later in the story by accident. On the bright side I'm at ~20k words so far. I intend on finishing this, but I've started to realize how long this is going to be. I can see why there is no Persona 5; all this social link writing is hard work and I'm actually cutting some corners in this (I did away with rank numbers so I could have some freedom in each one and integrate them together) I hope no one minds. It's kind of a change from the games since those social links are designed to fit anytime during the story.**

**Disclaimer: Still do not own anything **

Chapter 3:

_Tony tried to get the attention of his new friend, again that warm feeling spreading through him at that thought, but couldn't finish his question, as Anthony and the rest of the world faded into darkness before brightening again into the customary color scheme of the real world with his room as devoid of human life as it always was._

Resigned to the fact that his time had run out, Tony scrambled out of bed to get for the day. Looking back at his bedside clock he noticed that it had started moving again and that it was indeed 2pm. _Why would Jarvis let me sleep so long? _Tony started to wonder, but was interrupted by a gentle knocking pattern on his bedroom door.

"Master Tony, are you awake?" Jarvis asked sounding concerned. "You slept past 2 o'clock." Tony quickly reassured his butler/friend that he was awake. Jarvis stepped into the room looking relieved to see the genius up and about. "Would you like some breakfast…or lunch as the case might be."

"Sure! Can we have pancakes? You make the best pancakes and there is no bad time for pancakes" The child prodigy continued to ramble about his favorite butler's skills in the kitchen and eventually ended up debating the benefits of pancakes versus waffles.

"Of course." Jarvis said, looking amused at the animated child who, to him, was fast asleep mere moments ago. The pair made their way through the large Stark mansion to the kitchen, passing by several other employees who greeted the two politely, used to seeing them together. Jarvis responded in kind, but Tony was oddly silent during the trip, caught up in his own thoughts about the weird parallel world that he was in just a while ago. Tony's brooding lasted all the way to the kitchens and until Jarvis was almost done preparing the pancakes in silence. Meanwhile, Tony was settled on one of the stools at the island positioned in the center of the kitchen.

"How come you're so good at cooking?" Tony asked, trying to distract himself from his thoughts that were only driving his mind in circles with no new conclusions.

"It is a very useful skill to have" Jarvis answered, putting the finishing touches on his 'masterpiece' as Tony would say. Carrying a few from the finished stack to the island, Jarvis continued, "As they say, the way to a person's heart is through their stomach. Meals also serve as a convenient times for conversations covering just about anything." At this the aging butler gave the little genius, who was in the midst of stuffing his face, a piercing look. "We were very concerned when your father's associates found you asleep in the middle of the lab."

By then Tony had stopped eating and was pushing his pancakes around on his syrupy plate, not meeting Jarvis' gaze. "I was just looking around and lost track of time."

The elderly British man's gaze softened. "There will be time for things like that later, when you're older. There's no need to rush since you're already making remarkable progress, so don't push yourself too hard. Promise me you'll remember that." Tony gave a silent nod that wasn't very sincere, yet seemed to satisfy the butler. "Good, now would you like more pancakes?"

"Uh, yeah, thanks Jarvis." Tony replied, slightly embarrassed by the turn the conversation had taken. However, before Jarvis could turn away Tony suddenly had a spark of inspiration, "Speaking of taking it easy…" His heart was beating faster now at the prospect of something new and exciting. "You think you could teach me how to cook like you do?" The chance to spend more time with someone he considered family, how much better could it get? The more Tony talked, the better the idea sounded. "You said it was a useful skill."

"How can I argue with such concrete reasoning?" Jarvis questioned fondly. "We can start whenever you have time, except fot today. I still have a couple errands to do."

As Jarvis turned away to retrieve more pancakes, Tony was busy getting himself even more excited just thinking about his new plans. However, that excitement quickly turned to panic when another spinning card appeared in front of his face in plain view for anyone to see. Tony quickly snatched it out of the air to hide in his lap underneath the counter.

"Is something the matter?" Jarvis asked, noticing Tony's slight discomfort as he returned with more pancakes. Tony quickly shook his head and started to dig into the remaining breakfast treats before Jarvis could notice anything else out of the ordinary, carefully keeping his left hand below the table clutching the new card. "In that case, I'll be taking care of those errands. I'm sure you'll have no problem finishing those up."

Tony continued his little display until he could no longer hear Jarvis' footsteps. Assuming the coast was clear, Tony took the time to examine his newest card. This one had the same blue design and border as the first, but instead had a roman numeral 19 and a picture of a sun. To top it all off the shard in his hand was glowing blue again, shining through the skin of his palm.


End file.
